Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Therapy of Desire
Nussbaum's 1994 'Therapy of Desire' — Hellenistic ethics as philosophical-medical therapy of the passions
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Therapy of Desire (Middle) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Therapy of Desire
1986 Martin Lectures; 1994 publication. Nussbaum was at Brown University at the time of the lectures, having moved from Harvard.
Space
The Therapy of Desire
Oberlin College (lecture venue) / Brown / Chicago. The intellectual space is American classical-philosophical scholarship at its peak Hellenistic-revival.
Matter
The Therapy of Desire
Single classical-philosophical monograph (~550 pages). Form is monographic: an introduction setting out the medical-therapeutic conception of philosophy, then long chapters on Epicureanism (Lucretius), Stoicism (Cicero and Seneca, with substantial attention to anger and erotic love), and Scepticism (Sextus).
Observer
The Therapy of Desire
Middle Nussbaum (mid-career). The observer is at once the classical philologist and the contemporary moral philosopher, defending the relevance of ancient philosophical therapy for present moral life.
Energy
The Therapy of Desire
Hellenistic-revival energies. The book is the most substantial single contribution to the late-twentieth-century revival of Hellenistic ethics in Anglophone philosophy.
Information
The Therapy of Desire
Single substantial book. The chapter divisions track the three Hellenistic schools and the major emotions each addresses: Epicurean therapy of fear (of death); Stoic therapy of anger, grief, erotic love; Sceptic therapy of dogmatic anxiety.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Defining contribution to the late-twentieth-century revival of Hellenistic ethics. Together with Pierre Hadot's 'Philosophy as a Way of Life' (which Nussbaum engages directly), it shaped a generation of Anglophone work on the practical-therapeutic dimensions of ancient philosophy; the analytic-philosophical mode of the book made it accessible to philosophers not professionally trained in classics.